


A Monster Without a Name

by snoozingkitten



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Detective AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:35:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2554781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snoozingkitten/pseuds/snoozingkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sidney Crosby is an excellent detective with a dark side that not many get to see. When he collides with a Russian hooker things don't go quite as either of them planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Monster Without a Name

**Author's Note:**

> First off, I am without a beta, please point out anything that needs fixing. 
> 
>  
> 
> There are mentions of non-graphic underaged to non-main characters, murder, and blood, as well as all possible issues inherent in human trafficking and prostitution.

The thing was that they were perfect for each other, improbable _(edging into impossible)_ as that was. 

\--

They say that the psych profiles for police officers and criminals were eerily similar. 

On his better days Sidney could understand that, on his worse days he was acutely aware of that thin line mocking him.

He met Geno on a Tuesday. 

The bar wasn’t overly seedy, but neither was it anywhere the trendy crowd would be caught looking twice. Mostly the boys and girls peddling their wares kept it running- it certainly wasn’t the over-priced, watered-down alcohol. He couldn’t imagine actually staying in any of the rooms of the attached hotel. Sidney wasn’t a regular, just occasionally went to see if he could find someone to pay to satisfy his hunger on.

For all that he pretended that he had been around the block it was pretty obvious that Geno (not his real name but one he almost used to answering too) was new at this. It was in the attentive way he smiled at Sidney like he was a person and not a meal-ticket or the next fix. He wore his heart on his sleeve and didn’t knee Sidney in the balls when he wrapped his hands around that long throat. Geno clearly thought the fact that he was taller meant that he could take Sidney in a fight. He was wrong; but it was cute. Stupid, foolish idiot; that false sense of security would only end badly for him. 

Not that Sidney really cared here or there about it. Not when Geno also moaned and gasped as Sidney dug his nails viciously into the skin on the back of his thighs, fucking him with just the head of his cock, long legs, stretched wide, letting Sidney open him up with his dick. That probably said something about Geno’s character too, but Sidney wasn’t quite in the state of mind to figure it out. Difficult to focus on much past Geno, as he let out a strangled little grunt as Sidney pushed him to the limits of his surprising flexibility by pushing his knee up towards his shoulder.

Later, Sidney was in the shower, the water stingingly hot on the scores on his back left by short nails, fingerprints dug into his ribs where Geno clung too hard. He rinsed off quickly. There wasn’t any reason to rush; Geno wouldn’t leave until he’d gotten his payment. Sidney had left him, almost insensate curled in a ball on Sidney’s bed, filthy and fucked out. Sidney had been a lot smug.

Sidney wanted to fuck him one more time before the night was over; almost too sore to still be good- and better for it. Geno would be so sweet for him. Sidney moved a little quicker than usual getting out of the tub, breathing shallow and excited already. 

His curls were still dripping when he found Geno standing at the open door for his study, completely naked, save for the welts and bruises that were still fresh and hot, close to the surface. Sidney’s breath stalled for a moment, catching in his throat with the old panic of people touching his things. 

“You?” Geno looked at him over his shoulder, a little nervous, mouth pinched and brows drawn together. 

Just past him Sidney could make out the time-lines tacked to the wall, case files and photos spread in a mess of mutilated women and murder. “I’m a detective-- it’s just work.” The way Geno was standing, he could just make out the bright red of a forming bruise from where he’d pinched just the bottom curve of his ass too hard; the centre of it was purplish already; Sidney hadn’t held back. Geno didn’t react instantly, looking thoughtful for a moment, looking over the room one more time dubiously. Sidney could see the exact moment that Geno decided to believe him, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. 

“Police?” Geno shifted his weight to the other foot pushing his pelvis out a little, looking at him from the corner of his eyes he was smirking a little. 

Sidney curled his hand around Geno’s hip, pulling him in closer. Geno resisted for a moment but it didn’t last long, curling his long body over Sidney’s shoulder and running his hands down his arms to settle at Sidney’s hips. “Not arrest?” Geno asked around a wry smile, even as he let Sidney pull him closer. Smug, cheeky bastard. 

He slotted them together so he could push his hardening dick between lean thighs. “Off duty,” Sidney pressed his mouth to a bruising bite on Geno’s shoulder. The skin was still flushed hot against his lips. Geno’s breathing hitched, spine arching out a little so they slid together better. 

“Okay,” Geno breathed out sharply, tellingly.

Hookers shouldn’t trust so easily. Sidney manoeuvred Geno back towards the bed, using his foot to kick the door shut to his study. A stupid mistake, Sidney normally didn’t make mistakes. 

“Again?” Geno asked the consonant sound catching on his tongue clumsily, his long legs spread wide and hips tilted out, pushing his chest up against Sidney’s mouth and pushing back on the three fingers Sidney had in his ass. 

“Is it sore?” He twisted his fingers hard and Geno’s mouth fell open, hanging loose, as his eyes screwed shut. 

“Bit.” Geno hissed out, the last breath coming in sharply through his teeth.

Sidney smiled and teased his thumb along the stretched raw rim teasingly, Geno shuddered all over with a low whine. Geno was still all wet inside, smears of lube all over his thighs making the hair stick to his pale skin. He was fresh-bruise hot inside, had to be more than just a bit sore. Sidney was so hard it throbbed through his whole body, but he wasn’t going to fuck him until after Geno came on his fingers. Over-stimulated and pliant Sidney would roll him over and slide in deep. 

“Go on, I want to watch you come again.” 

Geno hesitated for a long moment, caved and got a hand on himself. Sidney watched him, soaking in the way his hips jumped between stimulation, his face twisted up hard as Sidney shoved him hard over into orgasm. He came, mostly dry, wet mouth working soundlessly and legs tense where Sidney was keeping him from curling up under the force of it. While Geno was still dazed and breathing hard Sidney manhandled him onto his stomach. 

“Be good,” Sidney commanded breathlessly, rolled the condom on, lined up, and pressed in. 

Geno made a low pained sound, jerking bodily while Sidney pinned him down with one hand between his shoulder blades and another on his waist. Sid was ready for the way Geno’s body rolled under his, bucking sharply all the while breathless cursing. Geno’s deep, heavily-accented voice rose sharply with each hard shove. 

It was messy this time, unlike the twice they fucked before; then was careful, controlled, calculated just right to make Geno beg and writhe. This was the endgame, what he was working towards all night, selfish and messy, all just for him. His handywork was spread out in bites all down Geno’s back some of the harder ones already bruising shifting from red to black as the blood oxidized. If Sidney had any inclination for art, this would be it. All that work to make him gorgeously complacent, lifting his hips into Sidney’s rough jabs because that’s what Sidney wanted and he was too far gone for anything else. 

He wanted to dig his nails into sharp shoulder-blades and pull, tear Geno apart completely. Instead he bit down hard enough on his own lip to taste blood and fucked him through the mattress while Geno was pliant and easy for it. 

\--

That should have been the end of it, fun and paid for, Geno moving stiffly, collecting the money Sidney put on the nightstand with a small nod and a pleasant smile. Under his tight top he was littered with the outline of Sidney’s mouth and the press of his hands (he paid for the right to mark him up, just in case Geno had been about to complain about it). Geno moved slowly but with dignity, tucking the bills into his tattered jeans. 

Only he didn’t stay gone too long. It was a few weeks later when Sidney was returned to his apartment and found Geno asleep on his bed. 

He knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the apartment, his apartment was his sanctuary and something had disturbed the sanctity. Lying on top of the covers Geno was fast sleep, weirdly long toes curled into the fabric. Sidney watched him for a moment, pulling his coat off quietly, Geno didn’t even twitch. The suit-jacket was constricting, without it he had full range of motion in his shoulders. Sidney crept up to him, and in one swift movement twisted him onto his back, pushed a forearm across his throat and pressed his palm down over his mouth. 

Geno’s eyes flew open, thrashing around on the bed, but Sidney had him pinned with his own body weight pressing down on his pivot points so he couldn’t lever himself up or out from under Sidney. Geno may have been taller but Sidney was heavier, better trained, and had the drop. When Geno finally stopped fighting Sidney stared down at him without blinking. 

“ _What_ are you doing here?” Sidney said, calm, furious, his heart was thumping hard, and pushing blood through his body making him feel hot and flushed. He felt hot and giddy all at once. Geno stared up at him, eyes huge, and skin turning red where Sidney’s fingers were pressing his lips against his teeth. “I’m going to move my hand, make too much noise and they will never find you, understand?” He almost wanted Geno to scream. Wanted an excuse to tip himself over a line that mocks him constantly. 

Geno nodded slowly, staring up at Sid. When he moved his hand it was wet with blood, as was Geno’s mouth, a split in his lip re-opened under the pressure. He didn’t look so good overall, half of his face blotched with bruising, from chin up to the arch of his cheekbone. Sidney hadn’t noticed in the moment, too focused on the anger that burned through him with the breach of his sanctuary. 

“Need help,” He said, tongue flicking out to touch the raw cut, his chin and lips spread with fresh blood too red against the waxy pallor of his cheeks. He looked like he was playing dress-up with a particularly lurid shade of lipstick. “Sid, police.”

Sidney eased off a little, still pinning Geno to the bed but letting him breathe a little easier taking the pressure off his windpipe. The skin was abraded and red, fresh damage. 

“Explain.” Sidney prompted, Geno looked off to the side for a moment, made a token wiggle to try and get out from under him, but Sidney liked him right where he was. “Keep talking or I’m tossing you out.” 

“At hotel, is girl, new girl, never seen her before.” Geno shuddered as Sid probed the edge of the bruising with his thumb. The way his eyes darkened wasn’t just pain, that or Sidney was projecting. He was half hard in his dress slacks already, heart thundering with adrenaline sliding smoothly into arousal. “Big Pete, he like her— worry when girl doesn’t come back. He has reputation with girls.” 

“Who did this to you?” Sidney asked, pressing a little harder on the bruise right on the edge of his jaw to watch Geno flinch. His heart skipped a beat, thumping tellingly against his breastbone. It was probably inappropriate, but he wanted to have Geno again. 

“Catch me when I try to find what happen.” Geno looked like someone had wanted to beat him to death, or at least put the fear of god into him. 

After a pause Geno twisted his head to brush his mouth over Sidney’s fingers, it had to hurt but he did it anyways, his lips were wet and too-hot. It sent a thrill down Sidney’s spine and his stomach tightened, making his dick jerk. “Help me?” 

“Help you what exactly, escape?” Sidney knew Big Pete in a professional sense, if he found out that Geno was trying to interfere with him getting his rocks off he’d kill him, and Sidney would be finding bits of him in garbage cans for years. Just another irritating cold-case that messed with Sidney’s arrest stats. Sidney might even be a little sad about that, it wasn’t every day he could find a man who whined so pleasantly when Sid held them down and fucked them. 

“Find girl, for justice.” Geno gave him a smile, teeth stained with his own blood. “I do anything you want.” 

“Anything?” Sidney asked him, tilting his hips so he could rub himself on Geno’s stomach, getting him a little more than halfmast, chubbing up under the stimulation. Under the bruising and the blood Geno was flushed, staring up at Sidney. He gave Sidney a sly look. 

“Yes.” Geno agreed, almost eager. 

“And if,” Sidney paused, rubbing his fingers across Geno’s mostly unscathed upper-lip, his breath coming fast, and brain spinning with the awful things he wanted to do. “I wanted you to suck me off?” 

Oh, it would hurt with his lip split so badly, blood hot and soft where the skin was torn to pieces. Sidney wanted it more than he wanted anything else. Geno’s eyes went dark with lust, tongue kissing the tip of Sidney’s fingers lightly, his mouth hot and slack. 

“I want.” He rasped, tilting his hips up so he was rubbing against Sidney’s backside.

Sidney would have kissed him if he hadn’t been bleeding so he contented himself with slipping his finger into his mouth to toy with his tongue in a parody of a lewd kiss. One Geno grinned at him around. 

\--

It wasn’t too hard to convince Geno to stay at his place while he looked into missing girls (unlikely, but wouldn’t be too hard to at least check, it wasn’t like they were ever short on dead young runaways), Big Pete (vice wasn’t overly keen on him, and he wasn’t overly keen on them), and the daily roster in the local morgues. 

Sidney didn’t expect much to turn up, but it was nice to come home to Geno curled on his couch wearing Sidney’s pants that were a little too short for him so his bony ankles stuck out, and watching daytime television. Sidney assumed it would last about a week and he’d be tired of the way Geno looked at him, far too trusting like he wasn’t aware what Sidney was capable of. Then Sid would tell him there was nothing he could do and cut him loose. 

Until then Sidney could enjoy the pleasure of keeping Geno secreted away in his apartment, his to keep as he saw fit. Usually face down in his duvet, toes curling into the comforter and spitting out Russian curses between his teeth as Sid pushed him a little too hard. Sometimes in the shower, the broadness of his shoulders shielding Sid from the spray, or hogging it depending on what they were trying to do. 

It was a lot like playing house. 

Only a body turned up in the morgue, girl around fourteen years old, mutilated with clear signs of repeated sexual violence. She had been dead for almost a week when they found her, skin already blackening with decay. It wasn’t his file and it was a lucky break that he even caught word of it. Still it pinged with that reptilian part of him that understood criminals far too well and made him such an excellent detective. (Promoted so young, the butt of all the office gossip everyone convinced he couldn’t hack it with the big boys, little did they know.) 

“Can I see that file?” Sidney asked, the case was Fluery and Dupuis’ (one new Dad and one that kept spitting out kids, both of them chomping at the bit because _fuck_ whoever would do this to a little girl.) 

“Always so serious Kiddo, I’m not feeling the love. You know something?” Flower gave him a squirrely look, clearly eager to get on with the investigation. He always look violence against children as a personal affront. One day it was going to ruin him, for now he was young and it just made him a better detective. 

“I might,” Sidney shrugged. “I’m going to need to see the file to know for sure.” 

“Let me know if you find anything-- I know where you keep your lunch.” Flower threatened, coming from him that was threat enough to give any man pause. The horror stories of past pranks still circulated the break rooms, used as a threat for uppity newbies. 

“Yes, you do.” Sidney shuddered with faked horror. 

He took his lunch and the scant prelim findings and went to check in on Geno. It was early afternoon still, and he found Geno sipping coffee at his kitchen table with the paper spread out in front of him mouthing out words to himself as he read. Geno paused, looked up when Sidney came in and smiled. The noon-sunlight was streaming in behind him making the edges of him blaze. The worst of the bruising on his face had turned a sickly yellow, soon the only bruises he’d be wearing were the ones Sidney left behind. 

“Early.” He noted, kicking out the chair across from him for Sid. “Skip work? Come home to fuck?” Geno bit the end of his tongue playfully. 

“I have something I want to show you,” Sid replied, toed off his shoes and left them by the door. 

"Bet you do." Geno laughed, leering ridiculously over the rim of his coffee cup. It was the dark green one, Geno’s huge hands dwarfed it. 

The photos were not pretty, someone had done quite a number to her face, but she was still mostly recognizable once the blood had been washed away. Sid toyed with the folder instead of opening it, debating if he should warn him or just dive in with both feet. Geno dipped his head, smiling faintly like he did at everything Sid did, like he was amused by some quirk of Sid’s. He wanted to be irritated with it, but would catch himself bringing things to Geno just to see that little smile. “What is it?” 

Sid ignored the chair opposite Geno choosing instead to stand beside his chair where he could feel the warmth of him through his cheap suit. The edge of the chair dug into the point of his hip, Geno’s hair brushing his abdomen as he tipped his face back and up to look at Sid curiously. He flipped the file open on the table, best do it quickly. There wasn’t much reason to draw things out. “The girl, is this her?” Sid pulled the photo out of the case reports. This could have been any door-to-door canvas for information, only that bruise high on the underside of Geno’s jaw was the same shape as Sidney’s teeth. 

His smile vanished pretty quickly. Geno looked at it long enough that Sid began to get impatient-- he nodded. “Yes, this her.” He touched the edge of the photo carefully, saying goodbye to a girl he never really knew anyway. Sidney reached past him and flicked the folder shut again, taking it back. 

“Good, very good. It’s not actually my case but Flower is going to want to speak with you.” 

At this Geno began to look nervous. “More police?” 

Sidney reached out, curled a hand around his jaw, the other to the back of his neck while Geno rest his hands on Sid’s waist, huge palms fitted warm over his hips. 

“Everything is going to be okay,” Sidney promised, Geno’s face tipped up to stare at him, his eyes were huge and liquid, far too trusting. It was hard to be bad at being a hooker, but Geno had to be terrible at it, giving far too much of himself away for pocket change. Sidney cupped his exposed throat and ran his thumb over the sharp angle of his adam’s-apple. 

“Promise?” Geno said, tongue caught between his teeth impishly. He pulled Sidney closer, the edge of the kitchen table digging into the side of his thigh. 

Sidney kissed him, upside-down and a little awkward. 

\--

“So, let me get this straight, you’ve got a Russian prostitute that knows my dead girl,” Detective Fluery did not sound pleased over the phone, but he was four hours into a fresh case and had probably been canvassing the local area around where they found the body for at least half of that. It would be enough to make anyone a bit cranky, what with all the migrants in the area. Seven different languages and enough rampant paranoia about the cops to make the whole thing like talking to a brick wall. Even if anyone there actually knew anything, they wouldn’t talk to them. Scared of big Pete, scared of deportation, all of the above. It was the kind of case that went cold as soon as EMS carted off the body to be pronounced. 

Sidney knew it, Flower probably knew it. That didn’t mean it still didn’t sting a little, and with Flower’s engine all revved he’d be spitting nails soon enough. French heritage meant his cusses were creative when they translated properly at all. 

“Yes,” Sidney replied easily, refusing to give away the fact that he was nervous about the situation. 

“But you won’t bring her into the station.” Flower continued, his anger contained for the moment. 

“Him.” Sidney stuffed his free hand into his pockets and kept his posture casual despite the fact that he was on the phone and the other detective couldn’t see him. 

“So you’ve got a Russian male prostitute that knows my dead girl, should I ask where you got this one?” 

Sidney felt the tips of his ears pink without his permission, he hated that. Inside his pocket his hand clenched into a fist. “Where do you normally meet prostitutes?” There was a long, judging silence. 

“Okay, fine. I’ll come to your place. ETA half an hour unless that cock-sucking construction is blocking off the bridge again.” 

Fluery hung up on him. Sid sucked in an irritated breath through his teeth. He slipped the phone back into his pocket and went to find where Geno was hiding. They needed to get his story straight. 

Half an hourGeno was obviously a little nervous. He sat in the chair furthest into the room, Sid’s kitchen at his back. The way he reached for the mugs to prepare tea giving away his familiarity with the house. Sid tried to see it from Flower’s eyes, Dupuis poking around his living room, talking on the phone with someone from another casefile, anonymous tips were always opening and re-opening cold files, despite how ridiculous, they had to at least look into them. 

Geno was obviously wearing Sidney’s clothes, even more damning he looked comfortable in them, resigned to the fact that they were too wide in the hips and shoulders and not long enough for his torso and legs. There were two sets of dishes from lunch piled on the counter. Not to mention the bite mark that Sidney left with his teeth on his neck, and there just under his ear where Geno kept touching it. He hadn’t been the one to leave the bruises on his face, or the boot print on his ribs, but the faint bruises around his ankles were Sidney’s fingers. 

It looked obvious no matter how he squinted, and Flower may have not been Sidney but he was a decent detective in his own right. 

All he could do was lurk in the doorway feeling oddly out of sorts in his own house as Flower tried to get as much as he could out of Geno. He kind of hated having them poking around his personal space this way, in a way having Geno living with him hadn’t been as earth-shattering as it should have been. Flower was as close to a friend as Sidney got, and he wanted him out of his house. 

“This a good idea Sid?” Dupuis asked him, Sidney had been too busy trying to stare a hole into his own countertop to hear him coming up behind. The breath caught in his lungs, and he only just tramped down on an instinctive flinch. 

“What do you mean?” Because playing dumb sometimes worked. 

Dupuis gave him a look that clearly said he wasn’t buying any of whatever Sidney was selling. Dupuis was an asshole most of the time, but he could pull out the concerned father voice with the best of them. Probably had something to do with the rate his wife kept popping out little ones. Adorable little assholes just like their dad. 

“We both know you’re a politician Kid, you’re going to go far, this could stain you. No one wants a commissioner with skeletons in the closet.” 

Sid squinted at him, lips pressing at the mention of the hated nickname. 

“There is going to have to be some paper work somewhere, vice is going to want to get involved, maybe even the feds.” Dupuis tipped his head at Geno continuing, and ignoring the look Sidney was giving him. Geno, who was stirring way too much sugar into a mug of coffee with hands that didn’t look entirely steady. The bruises his huge hands had dug into Sidney’s thighs flared when he shifted his weight, the muscles in his lower back letting themselves be known at the same time. He might be getting to old for sex marathons. 

“We get anonymous tips all the time.” Sidney rolled his shoulders, he did in fact know that this was probably a Bad Idea. 

“Hm.” Dupuis rumbled. “Idiot. You do not do things by half-measures.”

Sidney shrugged. 

“So tell me what you know.” Flower said sounding neat and professional. Dragged Sidney’s attention back to his colleague and his houseguest and the weird stand-off they had over two steaming mugs of coffee. Geno flicked an unsure glance at Sidney before he began to talk about the girl. 

\--

The thing was police work happened either really slowly or really fast. Either they had a clue and were onto something or they were scrambling to find the one thing that would unravel what happened. Sometimes it was right there, and sometimes the break in the case was hidden within hours of grunt-work. 

Her name was ‘Sarah, I don’t have a family’ and she couldn’t have been over fifteen at most. She’d never told Geno how old she was, and he’d seen enough girls just getting by that he didn’t ask. Track marks ran down one of her arms, fresh and angry, not quite yet a junkie but flirting with the edges of it. 

The girls made Geno sad sometimes, young girls were meant to be out having fun, learning what they loved, not whoring for drugs and getting mutilated in back rooms. Sidney knew this because Geno told him, sitting on the kitchen chair after Flower left him there. He’d almost looked sad, the worst of the bruising highlighted the angles of his face. Sidney had never really thought about young girls, he’d always liked the fragile strength of boys. That brave face and the way Geno’s face crumbled when Sidney bit him just right and fucked into his sloppy hole. 

Sidney had never stopped to wonder where any of the whores he fucked came from. Only what he could get away with. 

Sidney curled his hands around Geno’s neck in lieu of a hug, pulling him down into a kiss while Geno’s hands twisted in the bottom of his suit jacket. He was acutely aware he couldn’t claim the metaphorical high ground. 

“Bed.” Geno rumbled, hot mouth pressing against the thin skin under Sidney’s ear. The vibrations spread across his skin, making his scalp tingle. Geno hauled him closer using all the coiled strength in those broad shoulders. 

Sidney didn’t often understand people, he always said the wrong thing, or even if he did get the right thing then it was a beat too late. They used to call him a robot. Still, Geno’s mouth was wet and desperate, his libido coming out to cover his fear with false bravado. Sidney considered for half a second how he should handle this, before biting at Geno’s mouth, sucking that lush bottom lip into his mouth.

“Yeah, let’s go.” 

Sidney let Geno push him down into the bed. The sheets were a mess from this morning, tangled in the middle where Sidney had to get up to leave for work and Geno was still snuggled deep under the duvet, sleeping like he might as well be dead. 

“What you want?” Geno smiled, it didn’t reach the little crinkles around his eyes. He was astride Sidney’s thighs, sitting back, he loomed up huge over Sidney. The light streaming in through the window reminded Sidney he could be called into work at any moment. He wanted Geno’s mouth, throat all stuffed with his cock. Ached to hold him down and make him choke on it. 

“Tell me what you want?” Sidney asked, slipped his fingers under Geno’s stolen shirt, it was a little wide around the chest so his hands could slide all the way up, fingers fitting naturally to cup his rib cage. It was sort of like holding all his vital organs at once. 

Geno stared at him, blinking slowly, his mouth hung open, it left him looking stunned. Sidney wanted to bit that little vulnerable curl of flesh again. Chew on him until it took that stunned look right off his face. “I want?” 

“Yeah.” Sidney let his thumbs slide along the warm skin. He knew there was a boot-shaped bruise healing right there on the left, didn’t bother to stop the way his fingers dug into it just a little bit. Geno gasped, jerking lightly in his hands, breathing quickly. “Tell me what you want.” 

It was heady, weirdly kinky to hand even that little bit of power over. Geno seemed to consider it for a moment, rocking his hips lazily, so his soft dick dragged along Sidney’s thigh through the cotton of his sweats. He arched up a little into the contact, letting out a huff of breath as heat coiled tight in his stomach. He was slowly getting hard against the inside of Geno’s thighs. 

“If I want Sid to suck?” 

Sidney did a little sit up, tightening his abs a little with Geno in his lap so he could pull the thin t-shirt he was wearing over his head. There were still mouth-marks across his pecs, Sidney’s teeth imprinted on his skin, the muscle bruising in the shape of Sidney’s mouth. Branded all over as Sidney’s. Little finger-shaped bruises around his waist, that Sidney left there when they fucked in the shower and Geno had been slippery and Sidney needed to keep a tight hold of him. 

“I can do that.” He breathed, lying back down against the bed. 

It was almost insulting how shocked Geno looked. Admittedly Sidney normally didn’t suck dick. That was an act one did for someone else’s benefit, Sidney never thought to do so. Right now he wanted to give it a whirl. 

“Really?” Geno breathed, he folded over, hands on Sidney’s shoulders as he devoured Sidney’s mouth in a kiss. Sidney slipped his hands around to get two palms full of that ass, he wore no underwear underneath so he could just slip his hands under the elastic and follow the smooth curve of muscle until he had both hands full. 

“Yeah, why not?” Sid bit at his lips, now that Geno was close enough that he could. Geno was dry, but probably still a little open from the morning. Sidney’s fingers tugging at his hole. Geno groaned, moaning something not-entirely-English wetly against his cheek. 

“Suck me, and fingers.” Geno gasped against his mouth, the curve of his smile felt sharp. 

“Greedy.” Sidney laughed. 

Together they managed to get Geno’s pants off, somewhere in there Sidney lost his shirt as well, the little buttons carefully popped all the way down and tugged out of his pants. He didn’t want semen on any more of his work shirts. 

Sidney didn’t bother with his trousers, there was something hot about the way his belt dug into his lower abdomen. Geno wiggled his way up into the pillows, long legs splayed and a cocky smile curving on his generous mouth. Sidney wanted to break him apart to watch the way he gasped and choked on his own tears. 

Geno was his and there was nothing stopping him from doing just that. So, he hunched down between Geno’s thighs and licked a nasty strip up the side of his cock. It was hot against his tongue, didn’t taste any different than the rest of Geno’s skin. Sidney sucked just on the tip, that tasted different, but not in a way that made any real difference. 

“Sid.” Geno gasped, his hips jumping a little until Sid pinned him to the bed with his left arm. That left his right hand to wrap around Geno’s dick. He wasn’t entirely hard yet, but he could feel the slow pulse of blood in the base of his dick. Sidney put his tongue there and he could feel it hotter, could feel every ridge. 

“Good?” Sidney asked, lapping lower, running his tongue along the base, then down where Geno’s balls hung. He shouldered Geno’s legs wider. Let his mouth hover over, then bite into the straining muscles of his inner thigh. Geno shouted, one fist hitting the bed with a solid thump and Sidney smiled to himself letting his teeth sink just that much deeper. 

“Hurts.” Geno panted. 

“But you like it.” Sidney licked at the dents his teeth left. The crooked dentition pattern, where his front teeth didn’t line up perfectly; because it never looked bad enough to warrant braces even if his parents had the money for it. That was how they caught Bundy, teeth marks left bitten into the body of one of his victims. 

“I do.” Geno arched his back, toes curled where his feet rest against Sidney’s sides. 

It was irritating to know he couldn’t take all of Geno’s thick cock into his throat the way Geno could. Then again he was a police officer, not a hooker, the skill sets were a little different. Still, he tried and was instantly gratified by the way that Geno babbled at him, voice low and scratching over his name and what sounded like pleas to a higher power in slurred Russian. 

Still it stretched his jaw out in a way Sidney wasn’t sure he could keep up, the thick head battering at the back of his mouth flirting with his gag reflex constantly. He’d wanted to get a hand free to see how dry Geno could take a finger, just one wasn’t that big, but he needed the extra to hold him down. He was drooling all over his right hand, wrapped around what he couldn’t fit into his mouth, saliva slipping from the abused corners of his mouth to make the twist and slide of his fist smoother. 

Sidney hadn’t known that his hair was wired right to his dick, but when Geno wrapped those huge hands around his skull, catching his curls between his fingers and tugged, Sidney almost went cross-eyed. Fuck, his hips trust against the tightness of his work slacks twice. He redoubled his efforts, basking in Geno’s hands petting through his hair, tugging sharply when Sid did something he liked. 

Sidney was panting hard through his nose; trying not to choke to death on his own spit and the dick battering the back of this throat. Above him, Geno was a mess, groaning low and eagerly, the way his thighs quivered spoke of just how close to the edge he was. A harsh tap on his shoulder gave Sidney two options, and he hesitated a beat too long, pulling away just to get a load on his chin, he reared back, come sliding down his neck while Geno got a hand on himself to draw it out. 

He looked all fucked out, expression come-dumb, his cock wet and shiny, cupped lovingly in his palms and the bite on his thigh already bright fresh-red. 

Sidney was so very hard. 

He was going to do something about the come on his chest (he hadn’t wanted to get semen on his shirt, and it had been a wise decision). Then he was going to devour Geno alive starting with his mouth, and finishing with shoving his dick inside him. 

Only, while Sidney was still plotting the best way to get as deep inside of Geno as he could the phone started ringing. Sidney stilled, looking at the smart phone sitting on the dresser and knowing only work called him. He’d only recently upgraded his old flip-phone to one of these new ones and still hated it with a passion. Geno too twisted to look at it, body all loose and scuffed up.

“Fuck.” Sidney swore low, and with heat. 

Geno just stretched, showing off his impressive reach to snag it off the night stand and tossed it to Sidney. 

\--

“Is the witness still at your place?” Flower waited until Sidney was in the elevator to corner him. Sidney was only back in the station because he needed to run an ID and wait for a potential witness of a drive-by to come in. Management had been taking it as easy as they could on him while he was between temp partners, as his was on pat-leave. 

The whole case was very wham-bam thank you ma’am, open and shut in the dullest ways. Bad blood over a drug deal gone sideways a few weeks back, and someone who bragged about being out for revenge. Everyone knew who did it, it was only a matter of getting a witness saying it on paper so they could get a warrant to bring in the perp. 

“From Sarah’s case.” Flower clarified needlessly, Sidney wasn’t hiding many witnesses in his place. There was just the one. 

Flower looked like he hadn’t slept in a long while, he had always been a thin man, clothes hanging off of his frame like scarecrows from books. Now, his cheeks seemed a little sunken, skin taking on a faint ashen pallor. 

“He is.” Sidney responded. He shifted his weight a little away from Flower, he didn’t want to discuss it. The matter should have been wrapped up days ago when they took his story. 

“We’ve got nothing, Kid, nothing that can link Pete to her but the one testimony and the judge won’t give us anything on that because bringing him in might mess with vice’s OP.” 

Sidney sighed, in that moment wished he smoked like so many of his co-workers. It seemed like a safe and morally acceptable way to kill himself and relax while doing so. 

“And you want more from him?” 

“We could probably get a warrant for a wire, just send him back in for a little, ask a few questions.” 

Sidney grit his teeth. “You think _I_ left those bruises on him, he’s not going back.” 

“Hell, me and Duper wondered.” Flower shrugged, like it was ‘no big deal’. “You need to ask him, we don’t have anything else.” 

There were more cold cases and unsolved missing persons to fill an ocean with paper work. One more wasn’t going to make or break their department. Vice would probably take in Big Pete eventually, everyone knew about the methamphetamine ring he had his fat fingers in. What was one dead girl in all that? 

“I’ll do that.” Sidney lied. He intended to do no such thing. 

Flower looked around for a moment, like he was uncomfortable, probably like he was going to give Sidney some sage advice about letting runaway Russian hookers live with you indefinitely. Or maybe his lunch just wasn’t sitting right with him. Either way Sidney escaped before Flower could act on it. 

That night Geno was sprawled across the couch, his arm span was ridiculous, in another life he could have been an athlete. In this life, at least all the bruising had mostly healed and he was grinning stupidly at some cheap comedy going on in the Simpsons. 

“Dinner is cook-- soon.” Geno tilted his head back on the couch to look at Sidney better. He was still wearing Sidney’s clothes. Geno looked comfortable. Sidney found his heart rate and breathing even, despite that realization. 

“Yeah, okay.” Sidney shrugged his shoulders.

They ate dinner. Then watched an action movie. Geno’s arm was still flung over the couch so that the tips of his fingers brushed Sidney’s shoulder. He found himself hyper-aware of it, his mind fixated on all the places Geno was pushed into his life instead of the rattle of gunfire from the television.

When the movie was done, Sidney pushed Geno down into the couch, perched between his spread knees and pinned his shoulders to the cushions. 

There were so many ways he could fuck Geno, push him over the arm of the couch, hips held up where he could slide the deepest, the hardest. He could sit back and push Geno to his knees, watch him suck Sidney off while the news played in the background. Geno was looking up at him, challenging tilt to his lips and brows that said he was up for anything Sidney wanted. 

Instead, he found himself dipping his head, pressing his mouth to Geno’s cheek, pressing a soft kiss there. Geno hummed, hands coming up to clutch at the sweatshirt Sidney wore around his house. His hands were warm through the material. “When the case is over, will you leave?”

“You want I go, I go.” Geno frowned at him, dimming a little. 

Sidney didn’t know why Geno stayed in the first place, wasn’t sure what he wanted out of it. Thought that he knew more or less what he wanted, right here with Geno pinned under him. Sidney did want that, to fuck Geno over and over until he’s imprinted his very existence on his skin, and even that didn’t feel like enough. Maybe the problem was that he didn’t know what either of them wanted.

“Don’t go.” Sidney finally said after an internal debate. The words were not quite right, but the right ones felt stuck inside him, inadequate and too much all at once. 

“Okay.” Geno turned his head enough to kiss him. 

Sidney took the innocent little kiss and turned it filthy. One of his hands slipped around Geno’s throat tilting his head for a better angle. He could feel the pound of his heart there where the skin was thin and Geno was oh-so-vulnerable. He pressed his wet mouth against the wild thrum of that pulse. It was like trying to put a humming bird in his mouth, wings beating madly. He could crush tiny bones with his teeth. 

They fucked there on the couch, slow and sloppy. Sidney holding Geno’s thighs open against the arm of the couch and sliding in deep over and over until Geno was begging and Sid could feel each strand of his control snapping one by one. Until he couldn’t hold on anymore, and the shove of his dick into Geno’s ass began to ache.

Afterwards Sidney put one of his decorative throws on the sticky patch of lube and come, and basked in the heat put off by Geno’s chest. There he could press his teeth against the solid muscle of his pec and taste the salt on his skin. They were sticky and disgusting, Sidney could only deal with it for another fifteen minutes or so. 

“I worry.” Geno rumbled. Sidney could feel the faint vibration of his voice travelling through all the places they were touching. “When I run away, I know, get found, be killed.”

Sidney sunk his teeth a little deeper, Geno’s breath caught in his throat, story sputtering out immediately going tense all over. He had to think about releasing the pressure, his jaw felt too-tight. In apology Sidney licked the edges of the indent. 

“So you came here.” 

Geno shifted, sinking a little deeper into the couch, body curled to accommodate Sidney’s weight on him. His hands slipped down so his fingertips rested just on the curve of his ass. Geno seemed to like it, and Sidney would probably be willing to let Geno have it if he asked. 

“I hope.” Geno sounded like he was smiling. Still his fingers dug into Sidney’s ass, clearly not as relaxed as he would have Sidney believe. “Wonder if he hide hookers from pretty wife.” 

“No wife.” Sidney chuckled. 

“Maybe, hide wife from pretty hooker?” Geno laughed. 

Sidney laughed. They both laughed awkwardly. 

They settled down again, Sidney’s cheek resting on the solid bulk of Geno’s chest and listening to the almost silent sounds of his breathing. A few minutes must have passed that way, long enough for Geno to start squirming again, Sidney rolled his weight a little off of Geno’s leg, toes wiggling against the bottom of his foot in mute thanks. 

“I never thought I’d marry.” Sidney finally said into the silence, not to fill it, but because he wanted to share something. Because he couldn’t help but want to destroy, to rend.

“Mm? Police, very hot. Women love uniform. I know.” 

Sidney snorted, on that Geno wasn’t wrong. You wouldn’t believe how many people were able to turn a murder investigation into a pick-up line.

“The problem is, I’m very particular.” Geno snorted, he knew about the drawer of carefully balled socks arranged by colour and pattern, the crisp lines of his suits, and the measured lines of the mugs in the cupboard. 

It wasn’t just that. That he could have passed off as an oddity, but in the spectrum of normal. A nice enough guy with a touch of a DSM5 disorder. Overall: loveable by a patient woman with a mind for family. 

“Not only that,” Sidney continued pitching his voice low, not for effect but because if he didn’t speak slowly it would surely quake. He steadied his fingers by pressing them against the pale wings of Geno’s collar bones, sitting back on his hips a little. He was getting hard anyways, dick chubbing against his thigh. “Sometimes, when I put my hands on your throat – I don’t want to stop.” 

No matter how many times he licked his lips they were so dry, couldn’t work up enough saliva to swallow past the rasp in his throat. The room tilted a little, his grasp on gravity leaving him in a rush.

Geno seemed to be considering him. Tongue swept across his bottom lip, eyes dark and breathing shallow. He was either frightened or aroused. By all means Geno should have been frightened, but Sidney was in the right place to watch the flush spill down Geno’s neck. Sidney’s chest fluttered uncomfortably, maybe like he was right on the leading edge of a heart attack.

“Geno?” Sidney rasped, asking a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to. 

“My name Zhenya. Geno easy name—for dummie.” 

“I’ll work on it.” 

Geno surged up against the loose hold on his chest to force Sidney down for a brutal kiss. Geno kissed him like he wanted to eat him, using too much teeth, and taste him all the way down, so much tongue. 

“Want you.” Geno breathed, staring at him with clear challenge. 

They honey-moon phase couldn’t last forever, but that was the last thing on Sidney’s mind as he rutted against the cradle of Geno’s thighs, his dick lined up so sweetly with the crest of Geno’s thigh. Together they rutted like animals, Geno surging up against him powerfully. 

“The couch will need to be burned.” Sidney thought out loud. His breathing was still fast, body slowly cooling off, the second orgasm had ached as it ripped through him, hollowed out from somewhere deep. 

“Am stuck.” Geno agreed. 

Sidney washed the evidence down the drain, stale sweat and come, the bite marks and bruises remained. He touched one, pushed down until it hurt. In the kitchen Geno was making them a snack, and probably stripping the couch. It might actually need to be burned. 

His hair was still dripping. “Flower wants you to go back.” 

Geno paused, turning over what Sidney said in his mind. “Fuck no.” 

“Not enough evidence for a collar.” 

“No.” Geno’s shoulders hiked up to his ears, the knife he’d been using to chop vegetables **thunked** against the table top. He was chopping vegetables aggressively. 

Sidney shrugged. “It’s not my case, what you do or don’t isn’t any of my business.” 

“You mean that?” Geno was giving him an odd look. 

Sidney sighed. “Zhenya, what do you think?” Sidney crossed his arms over his chest. He was still damp from the shower, and Geno was in his kitchen, stinking of sex and cutting up carrot sticks. 

“Don’t know.” Geno sighed. The skin around his neck was red, and there was dried come making the trail of pubic hair down his belly stick to his skin. “Know I am happy.” 

Sidney stole a carrot stick, the crunch was loud in the ensuing silence. 

\--

Sidney would have liked to say he was surprised when the next day he got home and Geno was gone. The television wasn’t on, Price is Right having flowed into the day-time soaps or _‘you’re the daddy’_ court procedurals. 

Instead the living room was silent, the couch still stripped down to the stuffing of the cushions, covered washed and folded on the dyer waiting to be replaced. Nothing was cooking in the kitchen. His house was perfectly tidy, all the socks in his drawer still in perfect rows and it was utterly empty. 

A tidy house was a sign of a tidy mind. Sidney’s hands trembled when he went to reach for a glass. It didn’t take a detective to know that Geno hadn’t popped down to the store for more milk. Still he waited at the table reading the paper for an hour anyways. Then another hour by looking over the case file from yesterday making sure all his paper work was in order. 

Geno was gone. 

Not feeling hungry Sidney pushed his chair away from the table, it scraped loudly across the floor. It wasn’t a real silence, there was the occasional thump from the apartment upstairs, the half-sounds of cars outside, occasionally the double-beep of a car alarm being activated. He wandered into the bedroom. Even in here everything was tidy, the bed was stripped down the mattress, the tags sticking out from the box spring baleful and pale against the dark material. 

He was caught in indecision. Logically he knew that he shouldn’t act when the rage was still simmering right under the surface, but he would feel so much better letting it out. Besides, he had always known his life was coming to this. 

Plain black turtleneck and a leather jacket, jeans, generic pair of white socks he normally wore under his running shoes. There was a pair of trainers, not new and not old. He wouldn’t miss them. 

Sidney took seven hundred dollars in cash from the back of his closet (Geno had to have known that was there or he was even stupider than he looked but he hadn’t touched it). He left his badge and his gun on top of the dresser where they normally lived when he was off duty and the house was empty. He also left his phone and wallet.

He was off the next three days. 

Best part of having been a beat officer before a detective was that he knew the scuzzy and slimy parts of the city well. Knew them in the way that nice law abiding citizens didn’t. Sidney tucked the hat tighter on his head, supporting the local football team. 

It wasn’t actually too hard to buy an illegal gun if you knew where to go and they didn’t know you were an officer. He checked it over in the car, the slide stuck a little, because it hadn’t been maintained properly. The serial number had been filed off clumsily, but it would work for a little while and he only needed it for tonight. To add to that he bought a telescoping baton. 

“Looking for trouble?” The man behind the counter had asked, his smile saying he didn’t really want to know.” 

“Just in case it finds me.” Sidney had replied blankly. 

The hotel was far away from anything any tourists would want to see, it wasn’t even close enough to an airport or a high way to be of use. It had been an optimistic project at one time, a tender hope that the industrial park would be gentrified and the hotel would flourish. Only that never happened and the Russian mob had bought the building and set up shop. There was a little bar on the first floor where girls drank and waited for a nibble, the pond was shallow, but the girls were pretty, blond, tall, thin and vicious like half-starved dogs. It was the sort of place you could walk into and ask for anything. 

It had been that bar where he found Geno. 

Sidney parked far from the scene and took a cab to the nearest reasonable pub. The rest of the walk would be spent planning. Along the way he stopped by a dumpster and dropped his eco-friendly carrier bag. A rat screeched at him where he had disturbed its hiding place. 

Sidney hunkered down next to a beat up Ford and watched his breath mist faintly in the moonlight. The DMV had the Caddy across from him on file as Big Pete’s car. 

Sidney was a patient man. There was a moment for everything, plans came together and crystalized in moments. Tayler used to call it manipulative. It made him a terror in interrogation. 

His joints were stiff and cold, all the muscles in his legs felt tight. Sidney shifted a little, trying to encourage the blood to flow back into his feet. By morning there would be a thin layer of frost on everything, it was probably going to begin with his toes. 

It must have been five am when Pete arrived, Sidney had been idly debating the merits of going in after him. In a stroke of divine intervention he was alone. Just the two of them in the parking lot, all the colours washed out by the bright moon. Away from the worst of the street lights the stars shone just a little bit brighter. 

Big Pete wasn’t named that because he was tiny. Sidney moved on feet that wanted to rebel, careful not to make a sound. The baton extended with a soft _snick_ as he swung it, locking into place right before it slammed into the back of the knee. Pete went down hard, face bouncing off the car. Sidney didn’t hesitate. The next strike came down hard, right to the abdomen, it knocked the wind out Pete with a gasp, he rolled onto his side, scrambling for the piece he would have under his jacket. 

Sidney kicked him right in the ribs, hard enough that his frozen foot flared up with pain. 

Sidney was neither smiling, nor frowning. His face showed only exertion as he brought the baton down again and again, breaking a wrist as it came up to defend his face, classic defensive wounds on his forearms. Four fingers were probably broken. Enough of his face was broken that it was beginning to look a little like hamburger. 

He made a soft whining sound, high and frightened. Blood and urine were all over the ground around them, Pete had pissed himself. 

He was alive still, breath rattling through broken teeth and a bloody crooked nose. Sidney didn’t say anything, no witty one-liners from a revenge-flick seemed appropriate. Instead he nudged him with his foot until he stopped trying to wiggle away and crouched down and pressed the muzzle of the illegal gun to the thin bone at his temple. 

There was a split second of hesitation before Sidney pulled the trigger. Blow-back splattered against his already splattered gloves in a sudden burst of warmth. He could just smell the scent of burnt hair and gunpowder over the overwhelming stench of human filth. 

Sidney turned, slipped in the puddle of blood, one foot threatening to give out under him, so his run was more of a stumble. Soon enough he was sprinting away into the night. The sound may or may not draw attention, and he didn’t want to be there in the chance that it did. 

Sidney ran and ran until his legs burned and felt like rubber. He’d gotten a bit turned around and it took him a lot longer than he wanted to find the hidden bag. Anxiety warred with exhaustion, his muscles felt loose and unstable but his skin buzzed. It wasn’t a smooth get away, but no matter how he strained his ears there weren’t any sounds of pursuit. 

The fact that his hands shook made it hard to strip with any efficiency. Fingertips were numb and slipped over the buttons on his jeans. Standing bare-assed in the moonlight Sidney bit down on a giggle as he used baby wipes to clean blood of his face and hands. Out of the bag he pulled clothes, dressed in a generic jogging outfit, new shoes and all. Pulled the knit-cap over his head and tossed the clothes in the bin, wrapped in a baggie doused in bleach, and a garbage bag to dull the scent of the blood.

Cleaned, Sidney began to jog slowly towards home. He was a police officer, he’d done more with less sleep. 

The jog back to his car was long, ad taxing on his already strained muscles. Bruises left by Geno’s mouth and hands burned as he continued to run. His lungs felt bruised after all the running but his no-nonsense black Jeep was parked on the side of a residential road looking so calm and serene. He fumbled the keys once, twice, but eventually was in the relative safety of his car. 

As calmly as he could Sidney started the car and began to drive home. 

Some part of him assumed he’d come home and found that Geno had picked the lock on his apartment and was sleeping on his bed again. The apartment was still, only the sounds of the city waking up echoed off the walls. Geno wasn’t there. 

Sidney took a long shower and went to sleep. 

 

There was something ringing, might have been his ears, might have been a bell. As a child Sidney had gone to church on Sundays and the huge bell in the tower would chime to mark the hours. Taylor used to get so bored in church, squirming this way and that. That had been a deep sound, not shrill. 

Sid gasped as he woke up, the world was red around the edges with pain. He groped for his phone and managed to pull it into bed with him, disconnecting it from the charger single-handed as he rolled onto his back. 

“Crosby.” He grunted, trying to sound awake, judging from the light outside it was afternoon. Adrenaline kicked him from asleep to alert in a few hear beats. They couldn’t have found him that quickly. He knew the detectives and honestly, they were not _that_ good. Even knowing that for a fact his heart continued to pound erratically. 

“I know it is your day off, but we need you to come in.” His boss’ voice. 

“I love overtime.” Sidney tried to laugh and found his throat raspy. 

“We need more hands on this Crosby, and you’re one of the best we’ve got.” 

\--

The case he had been called in on was a disgusting triple that happed over two blocks as a chase broke out over someone who tried to rip five hundred dollars-worth of drugs off. A paltry amount for the poor boy who got caught in the cross-fire to lose his life over. There were bullets spread over a two block radius, and the ident unit looked murderous in their bunny suits, cases and camera clinking in their wake. 

Sidney stood a little off to the side, watching it all trying to reconstruct the pattern of events in his head. Over that way, cheap housing had walls like paper, not nearly enough to stop a bullet from ripping through. The kid had been innocently playing, toy cars still spread out across the blood-stained floor. He hadn’t survived the ambulance ride, dead on arrival. His mother was a sobbing mess, three siblings trailing behind her everywhere like ducklings. Two of which had been in the same room, but were luckier. Fuck was Sidney ever tired. 

At the very least, it gave Flower and Duper another child to righteously avenge and no one mentioned Sidney’s Russian hooker to him. 

That was until after twelve hours into his case Flower came up to his desk, propped his hip on it and looked down his narrow hooked nose at him. Sidney focused on the stupid little scruff of facial hair he liked to call a soul patch because there was something like sadness in his eyes. He’d looked harried for weeks now, everything piling on his narrow frame. 

“I got a call from the hospital. Mercy’s, downtown.” 

A shiver travelled down Sidney’s spine making all the small hairs shiver erect.

“Man, mid-twenties was found half dead in a gutter with my card on him.” 

Sidney breathed slowly, surprised when it was steady. 

“What happened?” His voice seemed so calm, rage surged up again making the air feel too thin.

“Said it looked like someone beat the shit out of him. He hasn’t woken up yet.” Flower wiggled his feet, looking for a moment away from Sidney. “Is Geno safe?”

“He’s gone.” Sidney watched the desperate race of clouds across the full fat moon, the slow pulse of Flower’s carotid, all his sense jacked up with the adrenaline flooding his system. He could taste the tang of mould in the heater. “Yesterday he wasn’t there.” 

“Idiot.” Flower spat, leaping to his feet to pace a quick circuit around Sidney’s desk. 

“I told him you wanted him to go back.” Sidney continued. Last time Geno had looked pretty beaten up and that was only a warning, Sidney could only imagine the kind of damage he’d sustained this time. Sidney would find whoever did it and peel all his nails off slowly before breaking every join in his hand with a chisel. 

“Why didn’t he just _call_ me, we could have helped, wired him.” 

“He was probably here illegally. He didn’t-doesn’t trust you.” Geno had told him about it, oddly okay with putting his body as payment to make it to greener shores. 

“If it’s him, he didn’t have any other fucking ID.” Flower hissed. “I’ve lost my only lead. That son of a whore is going to get away with this.” 

It wouldn’t be a problem. Big Pete was no one’s problem anymore. 

“What did you tell the hospital?” Sidney asked. Across the office, safely where he could listen and not be seen, Sidney could just hear Duper pecking at his laptop. Pretending to work at best. 

“They will call me if the condition changes. Can’t question him until he’s awake.” 

“Yeah, good.” Sidney lied. “Get back to work, we’ve got a case to solve.” 

Flower paused for a long moment, looking at him. “Are you okay?” 

Sidney suffered a comforting hand on his shoulder, the muscles there were sore from swinging the baton hard enough to break bone and split open flesh. 

“He’s just a hooker.” Sidney responded, viciously satisfied by the surprise on Flower’s face, which shut down quickly, returning to neutral. Sidney was not at all pleased with the way his own voice wavered. It betrayed the way his throat was dry and tight. “I’ll go to the hospital later, see if he has any new information. Get a positive ID.” 

“Yeah, okay Kid.” 

Flower continued to sit there, staring over his shoulder at something while Sidney timed the moments between each inhale to make sure it remained steady. The phone ringing broke the moment, Sidney’s hand reaching out automatically. 

“Crosby.” 

\--

By the time the case was closed and Sidney got to finally go home. The case was closed in a long 48 hours, and they had four people in custody charged with murder awaiting trial. Flower had left to go talk to the mothers of all the dead. It wasn’t an enviable job, there was always tears. 

Sidney was exhausted, he’d barely got any sleep and had to pull a double on more coffee than was probably strictly safe. He had managed to pull a quick nap in the break room. Felt more like a coma than actual sleep. He looked at the bare top of his desk. Flower and Duper both had photos of their wives pinned to the walls of the cubicle, Flower a picture of his wife holding a baby girl at her baptism, Duper’s was a collage of school photos. He didn’t envy that either. 

Instead of driving home for much needed time off he turned towards the hospital. 

Sidney had occasionally needed to park at the hospital to get information. The night ER and ICU nurses were all well-enough used to the police procedure. Sidney tapped his badge on the desk and smiled. “I’m looking for a male, for Detective Fleury.” 

“Floor three room 1045A.” Her smiled was bland and helpful, usual medical personnel with too much to do and not enough time in a day to do it all. Overhead, a speaker crackled to life, **’code pink, Dr. Hassain to the NICU.’**

Hospitals were all the same pale cream and green. Calming. 

Geno didn’t look good. All the green and cream in the world couldn’t calm the furious way Sidney’s heart was pounding. There wasn’t any way to tell if anything was broken but Sidney wouldn’t be surprised. To look at the medical records he would need consent or a warrant. He wanted to choke that little nurse until she gave him the chart and he could check over every inch of Geno himself. Compare what it said to every little scratch and bump he hadn’t left himself. 

“Hey.” 

Geno stirred, his eyes fluttered. Sidney pressed himself up against the edge of the bed. Three more patients were in the same room, the curtains providing only the barest hint of privacy. He didn’t look too lucid, but he smiled at Sidney dreamily. 

“How ya feeling?” Sidney pitched his voice low, reminded him of the hot space between the sheets, his own breath fanning against Geno’s chest hot and moist back against his own cheeks. 

Geno grunted, shifting. Sidney pressed his shoulder into the bed to keep him from moving too much. “Better.” Geno rasped. 

“Don’t move, just relax.” 

Sidney gave motion to the tender feeling that swelled under the rage and let his fingers play through the loose curls at Geno’s temples. They stayed that way for what felt like a long time to Sidney’s exhaustion soaked brain. Geno’s hair was greasy, curling around Sidney’s fingers in uneven clumps. 

“Why did you go back?” The question surprised Sidney even as could feel his own lips forming sound. It had been a doomed attempt from the beginning, any evidence provided would have to include Geno’s illegal status and he’d have been burned. Probably kicked around, then burned in the best case. He could have chosen to remain in limbo with Sidney. 

“Want to.” Geno closed his eyes. 

There was a long silence, where Geno either fell asleep or maybe he was looking for the right words. Sidney continued the soothing drag of his fingers through Geno’s hair, the warmth of him was comforting in a deeply primal way. Sidney wanted to bask in it, to curl up in the narrow hospital bed with him and rest his aching head against Geno’s warmth. 

“Needed be better.” 

This close he could see the way that Geno shuddered. 

"Wanted be more than just prettiest hooker.” Geno looked up at him, meeting Sidney’s gaze steadily if not still a little drugged. “Think maybe, help girl, get revenge maybe-- fix something. **So** much wrong.” Geno sagged. Those had been his exact words earlier, how ironic ‘he’s just a hooker’. Somewhere along the way Sidney began to care about more than just the way he whimpered. 

“I killed Pete.” Sidney whispered close in Geno’s ear. Knew he understood when fingers tightened around his elbow digging in painfully. 

“What did—do Sid?” He pulled back far enough to look into Geno’s wide eyes. 

He could have said he killed Big Pete for Sarah, could say he did it to free Geno. Neither of those were true. He did it because it was inevitable. That monster lived inside of him and it drove people away. 

“What’s done is done.” 

Geno had gone a little pale around the edges. Mouth moving in what seemed to be a silent prayer. Sidney had been ready for this. Still couldn’t figure out what kind of expression to make in the face of Geno’s horror, his face felt numb, everything but the drag of his hand through Geno’s hair was far away. “Why?” 

“This isn’t the place to talk about it. Not enough privacy.” He had taken enough a risk saying what he did say. Most criminals were caught because they couldn’t help the all-too-human urge to brag, he’s put away so many because they told someone who had a Jiminy Cricket moment and couldn’t help themselves from turning rat. Still he too, hadn’t been able to stop himself, it was a point to prove, but he didn’t know what he was trying to say. ‘I’ll protect you’ or ‘you need protection from me’. Maybe both? He was too tired to really figure it out. 

Sidney rubbed the soft skin behind Geno’s ear; followed the sweep of thick cheek bones. Let the silence string out between them, oddly comfortable for the bombshell that threatened to shatter the peace. “Come back if you want to. I’ll tell you then.” 

“Sidney? They won’t find?”

"I’m a better police officer than that.” Sidney snorted. “Give me some credit.” 

“Good.” Geno said with a soft smile. Sidney wasn’t sure about what he should do with that expression. It felt like a good moment to retreat. He needed to cool down, figure out a few things. Sleep, he needed to sleep. 

“I need to go.” 

“Sid?” Geno clung to his elbow and Sidney was gentle prying his fingers off. 

Sidney shrugged. “Bye, Zhenya. See you around.” 

\-- 

Four months passed. 

\--

Sidney went through brief stints of paranoia. Only, no one missed Big Pete, no one that meant anything to him. Flower had whistled long and low, Sidney was probably projecting but Flower looked satisfied, as the reports of Big Pete’s untimely and violent demise came in. It wasn’t the justice Flower wanted, but it was something. 

Letang and his baby-faced partner Matta were given the case. Idly, Sidney imagined his colleagues’ faces if they ever actually cracked the case. Would they still look so impressed? It was hard to imagine a scenario where they didn’t at least congratulate him, probably not out loud, but deep down. Big Pete hadn’t been worth the air he was breathing. 

Sidney was well aware he was a monster. 

Another double-shift; Sidney napped at headquarters, the little cots they kept in the corners of the break room were a lot comfier than they looked. 

Kunitz, whom had been off for the last five months on paternity leave gave him a fist bump first thing when he got back. ‘Looking good Kid, anything interesting happen while I was gone?’ Being a father looked good on him, there was a fresh bounce in his steps, an eagerness to get home at the end of each shift that had been waning as the shitty pay and long hours had been taking their toll on even his normally steadfast personality. 

Still it had been a successful double shift, "Good collar.” 

“It’s handy when they drop their ID at the scene of the crime.” Sidney replied back, without a trace of sarcasm. 

“Still, coped as soon as we asked. I wish they could all be this easy.” Kunitz rolled his shoulders, looking pleased. 

Sidney shrugged. “Finish up the paper work and we might even get off a little early.” 

Kunitz perked up at the mention of it. Obviously eager to get back to his family. Sidney had a house full of perfectly aligned furniture to return too, late-night news to watch. He hadn’t bought anyone recently. Sometimes he thought about it, but always ended up going home alone. 

No boys seemed right, even the tall dark haired ones just didn’t stir him up, not enough to actually follow through. The thought of one in his apartment didn’t quite sit right, and he couldn’t imagine being comfortable to fuck anywhere else. He thought back longingly to that fierce rush of emotion that swelled like a tsunami. The memory of fucking Geno limp that first night helped him get off, sucking on two fingers and tugging himself too-tight. He’d saved a fortune on hookers. 

The key stuck a little in the lock, requiring a little shove and a wiggle to get the mechanism to catch right. It was the low drone of the evening news trickling out from under the door that made his heart thump funny before starting again faster. He closed it behind him a bit louder than usual. 

“Sidney?” 

"You came back." He said it more to himself than Geno. 

Sidney stopped to line up the heels of his shoes against the wall and hang up his winter jacket, stowing away the hat and gloves on the end table where they would be accessible the next time he wanted to go out. Geno was sprawled on his couch, long legs spread in cheap jeans and a swaddled in a huge hoodie. 

“Nowhere else.” 

“I guess the mob isn’t going to want you now.” 

Geno stood up, he stood tall and smirked down at Sidney, looking too smug for the ex-hooker that just broke into his living room to watch the evening news. “Sid stupid. Nowhere else I want to be now.”


End file.
